Sunday, June 28, 2015

At the #HackED15 pre-conference at #ISTE15 I spoke with Peggy Sheehy (@PeggySheehy) about what she is doing to create an environment that inspires fun and meaningful learning with her middle school humanities students. I already knew she was inspiring student learning via games like World of Warcraft (here's her wiki that shows how), but it's not just about the learning that happens behind the screens. It takes more than throwing a bunch of cool new computers into a room to make a space where students want to be.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Here’s the roundup of what's been popular on The Innovative Educator blog. Below you’ll see the top posts along with the number of page views. I hope there's something that looks of interest to you. If it does, check it out. If you’re inspired use one of those icons below the post to share it with others and/or leave a comment.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Kids these days. They're re-wired with a need for constant attention and engagement. They could never do what we did: Sit for hours locked in our room or under a tree with a single book.

And that's okay.

Don't knock em. Join em. Help em. Even learn from em.

Nearly 40% of parents say their child does not spend enough time reading for fun but when you take social media into account you realize that is simply not true. Today's digital learners are not only reading like never before, they are writing too using social media. And that's a great thing. More and more research shows this is an effective way to increase literacy among our youth.

Here are some ways we can harness the power of social media to inspire reading (and writing!) and join families everywhere as part of the PTA Family Reading Challenge using social media.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of what people are trying, but not succeeding, to convey to others. They complain: “I tried to tell him…” (How to do that right. Not to do that. It wasn’t a good idea. This person was trouble, etc.) And, they think it is the fault of the person they tried to tell, for not listening. However, when I ask how they tried to convey their message, I find sometimes the problem wasn't with the audience. Instead, it may be with the person “trying” to convey their message, idea, warning, or lesson.

You’ve seen this if you’ve ever watched someone trying to teach a person or class that’s just not getting it. You can spot when and where they’ve lost the audience. Perhaps they said one thing, but meant to say something else. Maybe they went too fast and someone couldn’t keep up or too slow and they got bored. Maybe the class completely misunderstood what was being conveyed. Maybe they didn’t have the foundation to grasp the concept or idea. Maybe they just didn’t explain clearly or didn’t wait until the audience was focused and ready to receive the information.

Here’s the thing, if you want to be understood, it takes more work than just talking at your audience. There are some ways you can convey your message more clearly. This is important in general, but especially important for teachers to do effectively. Here are four strategies to keep in mind.